Radiation thermometer and method of computing the temperature

Abstract

The invention is directed to a method of computing the radiation temperature of a body from the signals of a radiation and an ambient temperature sensor, and further to a radiation thermometer, in particular a clinical radiation thermometer. In the method of the present invention, computation of the temperature is not using the Stefan Boltzmann law, but rather, a polynomial is used, preferably a third-degree polynomial, which is adjusted to the radiation-optical properties of the thermometer in the relevant wavelength range. The reciprocal value of the sensitivity of the radiation sensor is preferably represented as a polynomial as well. In this manner, the computation of a fourth root or divisions which are otherwise customary are avoided, enabling the necessary computations to be also performed, for example, by a 4-bit microprocessor with great speed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.